LONDON - To dip or not to dip, that is the question before Mariel Zagunis, the flag bearer for Team USA, as she marches past the Royal Box on Friday at the opening ceremony. The issue is a delicate one. By tradition, the American flag is not to...

International incident avoided! What were we to think here at City Room upon receiving an e-mail from a reader on Tuesday reporting something amiss among the roughly 200 international flags flown around the perimeter of the Rockefeller Center...

The glorious windows at Bergdorf Goodman, above, and the spectacle of Macy's fireworks capture the exuberance of the Fourth of July. Decorating in the city was revived for the Bicentennial, bottom row, an extravaganza attended by Queen Elizabeth. A...

July 6, 2008, Sunday

In World War I, Britain enticed Hussein, the sherif, or protector, of Mecca, to head a revolt against Ottoman rule across the Arabian Peninsula, in hopes that he would become the new caliph of all Islam. The British diplomat Mark Sykes designed a...